Daughtry tops the charts, knocks off the late King of Pop

It's often been remarked how Kurt Cobain and Nirvana knocked Michael Jackson from the top of the Billboard charts with "Nevermind." Well, North Carolina's Daughtry (led by former American Idol contestant Chris Daughtry) can now make that claim as well.

"For the past three weeks in a row," says Entertainment Weekly, "Michael Jackson's 'Number Ones' has been the biggest-selling album in the country.

"Each time, it's been disqualified from Billboard's flagship Billboard 200 chart, along with all Jackson's other releases, due to its age.

"That unusual run of asterisked Billboard 200 chart-toppers is now over. Which artist put an end to Jackson's posthumous flummoxing of the Billboard rules, you ask? The answer is Chris Daughtry, whose 'Leave This Town' bows atop the chart with a very nice 269,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

"That's actually a bit of a drop-off from the 304,000 that the first album from American Idol alum Chris Daughtry's band sold when it hit shelves in 2006, but it's more than anyone else could muster in this sales frame -- yes, even Michael.

"And so for the first time in a month, the No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 is actually the No. 1 selling album in the U.S., no tricks, no fooling. ..."